Lost Then I'm Found
by screaming-poetically
Summary: She knows that he is lonely, that he just needs to feel again – Merlin knows that she feels the same way. Percy/Hermione.


**Title:** Lost Then I'm Found  
**Pairing:** Percy/Hermione.  
**Rating:** FRT.  
**Word count:** 1, 662.  
**Warnings:** Spoilers for DH.  
**Prompt:** Put your iTunes on shuffle, and write a drabble based on each of the first ten songs that play.  
**Summary:** She knows that he is lonely, that he just needs to feel again – Merlin knows that she feels the same way.  
**Disclaimer:** The names of all characters contained herein are the property of JK Rowling. No infringements of these copyrights are intended, and are used here without permission.

1. Something – Cary Brothers

The snow is falling around the Burrow. Hermione stands on the porch and looks out into the deep dark of the night. She sees movement to her left, and turns, her hand twitching around her wand. Percy emerges from the tall grass, covered in flakes of snow, his arms raised. It's still so soon since the end of the war. She wonders if her first defense will always be to raise her wand when a noise is too loud or someone surprises her.

She lowers her wand and smiles sheepishly at Percy. He nods and mumbles a gruff _hello_ in her direction, shuffling past her, barely raising his eyes to meet hers. She lets him pass.

Even after the Battle of Hogwarts, Percy keeps mostly to himself. It's as if he feels like he doesn't deserve to be a part of this family anymore. She sees him, walking around the Weasley property, hands shoved deep in pockets with an empty expression on his face.

Fred is dead and I am alive. She knows that he thinks this; his expressions aren't exactly veiled in secrecy. She wishes there was something she could do to make him feel better.

2. All I Need – Mat Kearney

Percy kisses her, hard and rough and desperate, the following April. It is Fred and George's birthday, and they are standing in the hall outside of his room. Ron, Mrs. Weasley – anyone could come at any moment and see them, like this, together.

Hermione kisses him back.

She knows that he is lonely, that he just needs to feel again – Merlin knows that she feels the same way.

He holds onto her for a few moments after they part. One hand worries the hem of shirt, fingers finding the skin on her hip, while the other frames her face. He just looks at her, and she offers him a reassuring smile.

He nods, presses a soft kiss to the corner of her mouth, and then walks downstairs, leaving Hermione alone in the darkened hallway, looking after him.

3. Peppermint – Lovers

"I'm not afraid of wanting you," Percy says. "I'm not."

It is the summer now, and they are standing in the kitchen while all of the other Weasleys (and Harry) muck around outside, tossing gnomes and playing Quidditch.

"I know," she replies. "But you are afraid of something, I can tell – and I wish you'd just tell me what it is."

He leans against the counter, back facing the window. He doesn't look at her. She grabs a stack of dishes off of the table and puts them next to the sink; after all, the water is there, the soap – she might as well busy herself. It'll distract her from this heavy feeling in her chest.

She's not dating, Percy, no; but they talk, and the closer they get the more certain she is that she is falling for him. Sometimes they kiss, or he'll hold her hand under the table. The secrecy is stifling and Ron doesn't know.

It is always Ron, she thinks as she dries off a plate and sets it aside, who determines everything. Always walk on eggshells, be careful what you say. Wouldn't want Ron to find out.

She sees Harry zoom past on his broom, looking for the snitch with Ginny close behind. She is distracted by Percy standing so close to her.

"I'm afraid of not being with you," Percy says just before he walks away. Hermione drops a mug to the bottom of the sink, and she stands still for a long time, his words echoing in her head.

4. Stolen (feat. Juli) – Dashboard Confessional

"I love you," he says.

Hermione says nothing. The apartment that she shares with Ron is empty; her boyfriend is helping George in the shop. It was kind and uncharacteristically selfish of Ron to put Auror training on hold to help his brother out in the joke shop. She supposes it was that act that softened her heart so that when he proposed, she said yes.

"I love you," he says again.

She turns to face him. "Percy," she says, "you know we can't."

5. Fix You – Coldplay  
It is surprisingly cold for September. Hermione stands in the middle of her sitting room, Ron gesturing and talking loudly. Shouting, really. She supposes that it was only a matter of time before he found out about her relationship of sorts with Percy. It was only ever a matter of time.

"Aren't you going to say anything?" Ron asks, looking at her. "Aren't you going to even try?"

"What's the point," Hermione wearily asks in return, "when what I say to you won't matter in the end?"

Ron splutters a denial, and Hermione shrugs on her jacket. She gathers some things throughout the apartment, and he follows her, still shouting. She ignores it, and finally slides a bag over her shoulder.

"Ronald," she says. "I'm leaving."

And she does, and she's not sure at what she's more surprised: that she actually left Ron, or that Percy is waiting for her outside the flat, or that she's actually glad that he is.

6. Suspended – Matt Nathanson

When he's with her, it's so easy for Percy to forget that he's lost, that he's so wracked with guilt over Fred and not being there for his family during the years that mattered the most, and that he feels as if he will never have a good night's sleep ever again.

His hands will tangle in her hair and he will kiss her, and she always closes her eyes. He knows that, just like himself, Hermione has done something that she's not sure she can ever forgive herself for. Ron and her were meant to be. They were – are – in love, he reminds himself. And just because Hermione walked out doesn't change that.

She's asleep next to him in the bed, and she whispers his name, but it feels like a betrayal instead. He leaves in the middle of the night, and she is completely unaware.

When she wakes up and finds him gone, she knows that she has to find him. It's the only thing she knows for certain.

7. Ta douleur – Camille

She finds him in the countryside of France. He's set up the Weasley tent in the middle of a field overlooking the sea; it's not bad as far as such set-ups go.

She's so angry at him for leaving. She's been looking for him for almost six months; Percy was surprisingly good at covering his tracks, and as clever as she is, she was unable to find him until exactly now, and even that had been half an accident.

She suspects that Fleur helped him somehow, and she makes a mental note to have it out with her at a later date.

Percy and her have been shouting back and forth for what seems like hours. Finally, he steps closer, holds her hands in his own and speaks to her earnestly. Of his love, of how she completes him, of how she has saved him in every way a person can be saved, and that the reason he left was that he didn't want to play second fiddle to a brother that wasn't good enough for her anyway.

Hermione is silent for too long; Percy makes as if to back away, begins muttering an apology, but she silences him with a kiss.

8. You're Innocent When You Dream – Jill Hennessy

They make love gently, carefully, as if they are afraid that everything between them – so fragile already – will break if they move to surely. It's their first time (together, at least; both Hermione and Percy have been with others before this) so of course it is awkward, and clumsy, but it's theirs, and it's real. That's all that matters.

Afterwards, they lay together, Hermione's wild curls against his chest, her fingers stroking his stomach softly. His hand rests on her shoulder.

He thinks, briefly, that he's not strong enough for this. She presses a kiss to the skin on his chest, as if sensing his thoughts. "It'll be okay," she murmurs sleepily. "We'll be together."

9. Warm Whispers – Missy Higgins

They spend two more weeks in that field in France before they return to the Burrow. Mrs. Weasley throws a fit; George looks between the two of them and then nods, as if giving his approval; Ron looks sullen but he gives Percy a hug, and Hermione too.

Their (official) courtship is all too brief for the approval of some. The time passes quickly. They date, and they hold hands, and kiss, and make even more memories than what they had before. If they weren't in love with each other previously, they are now, and falling deeper every day.

She's healing him, and he's rescuing her, and together they were something to be reckoned with.

He doesn't even exactly ask her to marry him. She's asleep in his bed when he leaves to get something from a hidden spot between the cupboard and the laundry; he comes back shortly thereafter and kneels beside the bed, shirtless, hair ruffled from sleep, his pajama pants riding low on his hips.

He slips a ring on her finger as she wakes slowly. She closes her hand around his, and it's only then that she realizes something is different. She looks at the ring for a moment before she smiles at him warmly, tugging on his hand to pull him back into bed with her.

10. Oh, My Darling – Basia Bulat

He is hers and she is his and they are two as one. And maybe they weren't meant to be, but they are. She keeps him breathing and she's making him a better man, and even if he wasn't the Weasley brother she set out to have, it doesn't matter. Because they will, from now on, face the world together. And that's enough. It will always be enough.


End file.
